Strait must be secured from the land

Begi Hersutanto, Jakarta

Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore signed on July 20 an agreement to carry out an operation to secure the maritime channel. The three littoral countries in this regard chose to establish coordinated patrols, in which each country is authorized to trespass the border of another in the event of hot pursuit.

Security concerns in the Strait of Malacca focus mainly on the threat of piracy against vessels passing through it. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) published earlier this year a report on the incidence of piracy in the strait. According to the report, the Malacca Strait is regarded as one of the most vulnerable maritime areas for piracy.

This report triggered a debate over security in the strait, in which one of the options was a proposal by Thomas Fargo, the U.S. Admiral of the U.S. Navy fleet in the Pacific, on U.S. troop deployment to secure the strait. The three littoral countries had their differences on this matter. At the time, Singapore preferred to consider the proposal by Admiral Fargo as an option, while Indonesia and Malaysia rebuffed the proposal for reasons of national sovereignty.

Finally, the three littoral countries reached an agreement to carry out a coordinated patrol to secure the Malacca Strait, in which the three countries will deploy 17 battleships. In this arrangement, Indonesia operates seven battleships, with Malaysia and Singapore each contributing five.

We should salute this achievement because Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore finally managed to shrug off the burden of their differences on this matter and work together to reach agreement on the operation.

However, this cooperation is far from adequate. Additional initiatives are still required to support the arrangement so that it will achieve its goal effectively: namely, a secure Malacca Strait. The missing element in this arrangement is coordination with the local civil security authorities on the surrounding land.

The arrangement focuses more on patrolling the sea, whereas the actual threat source emanates from the land. The pirates here are people who live on the land and islands surrounding the Malacca Strait. They live on the land even though they commit crimes on the sea.

Pirates living in the area surrounding the Malacca Strait cannot be considered terrorists: They are simply criminals. In order to be considered terrorists, their activities would need to have an element of political motivation. On the contrary, the pirates commit their crimes purely for personal economic gain.

Piracy is like any other crime committed by criminals on the land. The difference between them is that crimes such as robbery and burglary occur on land whereas piracy takes place on the sea.

For these reasons, the sea patrols need to have the support of and be coordinated with the local police. The function of the local police in the surrounding land is to prevent the potential pirates from being operational at sea.

Meanwhile, the local police on the land should be able to take action against pirates who succeed in getting away from the sea patrol after committing piracy. They usually move stolen goods from the sea to the land in order to be able to exchange them for cash.

Such coordination would leave no room for the pirates, either on land or sea. It would also be harder for them to commit their crimes at sea, and also difficult for them to sell the goods thus stolen.

The Malacca Strait is divided into two territorial seas, one belonging to Indonesia and the other to Malaysia. There are indications that most of the criminals committing piracy in the Malacca Strait come from Indonesia. They live on the land and on islands within Indonesian territory.

In this regard, the idea that patrols in the Malacca Strait needs to have support from the local police on the land should be addressed to the Indonesian police (POLRI). POLRI should be able to carry out surveillance of the suspected group of potential pirates, and perhaps prevent them from becoming operational.

POLRI has to be able to identify suspected pirates groups while they are on the land and also to intercept them when they manage to escape sea patrols to the land.

It is therefore crucial to have not only Coordinated Patrol arrangement to secure the Malacca Strait but also coordination with the local police on the land.

Since it is suspected that most pirates in the Malacca Strait come mainly from Indonesia, POLRI should be able to play a proportionate role in this exercise.

The writer is a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).